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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27770617">A Date With Destiny</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rehearsal_Dweller/pseuds/Rehearsal_Dweller'>Rehearsal_Dweller</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>(super) suit and tie [5]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Newsies!: the Musical - Fierstein/Menken</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>F/M, Parent Jack Kelly, superhero au</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-11-29</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-11-29</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 23:15:50</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,156</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27770617</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rehearsal_Dweller/pseuds/Rehearsal_Dweller</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>So, Katherine may or may not be dating a supervillain. She finds she doesn't really mind.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Jack Kelly/Katherine Plumber Pulitzer</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>(super) suit and tie [5]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1906060</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>41</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>A Date With Destiny</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Hey guys!! It's been almost a full month since I last posted a fic, and that's because I was doing NaNoWriMo which I FINISHED today and decided to celebrate with finishing another (super) suit and tie fic.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Nobody answers the door when Katherine rings the Kelly house, but that’s not entirely unusual. Jack has a tendency to get lost in projects and his child Sawyer is much the same way. It’s not a big deal, Katherine has a key, she just prefers to ring because digging it out is a hassle.</p>
<p>So she lets herself in, and she’s a little way into the front hall before it really hits her how oddly silent it is in the house.</p>
<p>She pauses in the doorway of the studio room, where she’s found Jack and Sawyer. They’re signing rapidly back and forth, in what looks like it might be an argument.</p>
<p>Sawyer clears their throat, and it sounds almost like a laugh. “Hi Kath. Dad, Katherine’s here.”</p>
<p>Jack turns on his heel, furrowed brow softening as he grins at her. “I see that. Hey, Kathy, I didn’t <em>hear you</em> come in.”</p>
<p>The emphasis is odd, but it makes Sawyer snort.</p>
<p>“You two seemed pretty, uh, focused,” Katherine replies, raising an eyebrow. She shifts on her feet and the floorboard creaks underneath her – strange, the floor hadn’t squeaked at all as she came in.</p>
<p>“Dad’s been helpin’ me practice for school,” Sawyer says. There’s something mischievous about their smile after that, dimples coming out in full force. “Do you know any sign language, Kathy?”</p>
<p>“I learned please and thank you from Blue’s Clues as a kid, but that’s about all I’ve got,” says Katherine. She knows her letters, too, but that’s not especially useful on its own either.</p>
<p>“We could teach you!” Sawyer says brightly.</p>
<p>“That might be nice,” Katherine replies.</p>
<p>Sawyer nods, smiling again. “Dad, you should –“</p>
<p>“No,” Jack cuts in. “Don’t you have work to do, Soze?”</p>
<p>“Not if I can’t –“</p>
<p>“Sawyer Kelly, I swear to God –“ Jack cuts off, fingers flying through a few more signs rather than finishing the sentence aloud.</p>
<p>“I could come back another night, Jack, if you’ve got your hands full tonight,” Katherine says.</p>
<p>Sawyer laughs. “Don’t worry about me, Kathy. I’m gonna go do my homework and maybe read your latest article about Flare and Race again. It was a great one.”</p>
<p>“Thanks, Sawyer,” Katherine replies, feeling a little bit like she’s missing out on a joke.</p>
<p>“Sawyer,” Jack says, his tone warning.</p>
<p>“Yeah, Dad,” says Sawyer, rolling their eyes. “I’m going.”</p>
<p>They scoop a book up off of the worktable they usually use as a schoolwork desk while Jack paints, then walk into their bedroom and kick the door shut behind them.</p>
<p>Jack pinches the bridge of his nose. “I swear, that kid’s gonna be the death of me.”</p>
<p>“I didn’t realize you two were such fluent signers,” Katherine says, probing.</p>
<p>Jack sighs. “It’s mostly out of necessity.” He runs his fingers through his hair. Katherine isn’t sure what he and Sawyer were arguing about, but Jack seems to be taking the whole thing harder than his kid. “I guess I haven’t really told you much about how I ended up with Soy.”</p>
<p>“Not really,” Katherine agrees.</p>
<p>Jack waves toward the couch, and Katherine follows him over to it. They sit down side-by-side, Katherine leaning into Jack’s side.</p>
<p>“Soy has superpowers,” Jack says. He pulls his leg up to his chest, wrapping his arm around it. “I don’t know if you know this, Kath, but it’s a lot harder to get adopted when you have powers; not that there’s, you know, a ton of us out there, but nonpowered parents don’t like the idea of taking in a kid with that kind of <em>issue</em>.” He rolls his eyes pointedly. “So when I decided to adopt, I actually went looking for a kid with powers.”</p>
<p>“That makes sense,” says Katherine. She hadn’t known Sawyer has powers, though it doesn’t surprise her, and she hadn’t known it was harder for superpowered kids to get adopted, though that doesn’t surprise her either.</p>
<p>“I’ve had them since they were, what, seven?” Jack says thoughtfully. “Yeah, just barely seven when the papers went through. And when I first met them, Sawyer <em>barely</em> talked. I mean, they <em>could</em> talk, they just… didn’t.”</p>
<p>“I didn’t know that,” Katherine says. She looks over at Sawyer’s bedroom door. “I’d never have guessed.”</p>
<p>“Yeah, they’re a real chatterbox now, comparatively,” says Jack, also glancing over at the door. “Part of it had to do with their powers, though. See, Soy’s got sonic manipulation, and as a little kid they didn’t have a ton of control over it. Sometimes they’d cut off sound around them and not be able to get it back.” He turns back toward Katherine. “<em>Now</em> they do it on purpose, because they are a <em>LITTLE SHIT.</em>”</p>
<p>Katherine giggles. “I see.”</p>
<p>“They’re a good kid, really,” says Jack. He rubs the back of his neck. “Look, Kath, there’s something I need to talk to you about.”</p>
<p>“What’s up?” Katherine asks, taken slightly aback by Jack’s change in tone.</p>
<p>“Sawyer has been on my ass about telling you about – I mean, you know that<em> I’ve</em> got superpowers, right?”</p>
<p>“Uh, yeah,” says Katherine, raising an eyebrow. “I’ve walked in on you six inches off the ground, like, eight times.”</p>
<p>“Right,” says Jack, rubbing the back of his neck again. “Well, there’s something I haven’t told you. About that.”</p>
<p>“Oh, yeah?”</p>
<p>“So,” Jack says. “Uh, I’m – that is to say –“</p>
<p>“He’s Impulse!” Sawyer’s voice shouts from the next room.</p>
<p>“Sawyer Kelly!” Jack says, standing up and walking to Sawyer’s bedroom door. He pushes it open. “We’ve talked about this, no eavesdropping!”</p>
<p>“Be less of a disaster and I won’t have to help you come clean to your stupid girlfriend about your stupid job,” Sawyer says, rolling their eyes. “Not that you’re stupid, Kathy, just – ugh, Dad. Use your words and I won’t do it for you.”</p>
<p>“I can and will take away your artbooks,” says Jack.</p>
<p>“You’re a worse supervillain than I thought if that’s the best threat you’ve got,” says Sawyer.</p>
<p>Jack makes a strangled noise of frustration at the back of his throat. “What did I do to deserve this?”</p>
<p>“Do you want an itemized list?”</p>
<p>“Do your homework,” Jack says sternly. “And stop using your powers for evil.”</p>
<p>“I’m telling Flare you said that,” Sawyer says lightly.</p>
<p>“Oh my <em>God</em>, Sawyer,” says Jack, pinching the bridge of his nose. He shuts the door again, turning back toward Katherine.</p>
<p>“So, Impulse,” she says as casually as she can.</p>
<p>“Impulse.”</p>
<p>“I’ve got to be honest with you, Jack, I kind of already knew,” Katherine admits.</p>
<p>“Wait, really?” Jack says, his eyebrows scraping his hairline. “How?”</p>
<p>“I’m in investigative journalist, Jack,” Katherine says flatly. “Of course I knew. It’s not like you wore a suit until, like, ten minutes ago.”</p>
<p>“Wanna know a secret?” says Jack. “Flare and Racer hooked me up with their supersuit guy.”</p>
<p>“I am so, so not surprised by that,” says Katherine. “Your new look’s got a lot of the same feel as theirs.”</p>
<p>“I like it,” says Jack. “Makes us feel like a unit, you know. Anyway, yeah, things have been getting pretty, uh, serious with you, lately. And we’ve been together for a while. And Sawyer’s been on me about telling you, because they don’t think I should be in a committed relationship if I didn’t feel comfortable telling you what I get up to in my free time.”</p>
<p>“I’m glad you felt like you could trust me,” Katherine says honestly.</p>
<p>Jack falls back onto the couch next to her, and she pulls his hand into both of her own.</p>
<p>“So you don’t, like, hate me or anything?”</p>
<p>Katherine laughs. “No, no, of course not.”</p>
<p>“I’m not trying to talk you out of that, or anything, but you do know that as Impulse I’m a literal supervillain, right?” Jack says. “I feel like I need to emphasize that.”</p>
<p>“I know,” says Katherine. “But you’re still a good person at your core. I love you, Jack. That’s not going to change.”</p>
<p>Jack smiles at her, a little worn around the edges. “God, Kath, I love you.”</p>
<p>He pats her hand and stands up again, this time moving toward the kitchen. “I was thinking about pasta for dinner, since Sawyer has officially lost their request privileges for tonight so we’re <em>not</em> doing homemade pizza.”</p>
<p>There’s a distant groan of <em>aw, Dad –</em> from the other room.</p>
<p>“Not happening, Sawyer,” Jack says, without even raising his voice.</p>
<p>“Pasta sounds great, Jack,” says Katherine.</p>
<p>She stands up to follow him into the kitchen, but she’s distracted by a new frame on the wall.</p>
<p>“I didn’t realize you’d gotten to be such good friends with David and Tony Jacobs,” she says, staring at the photo. It was a picture of Sawyer standing between David and Tony with a blinding smile on their face, the three of them on what looked like the steps of the natural history museum downtown.</p>
<p>“Oh, yeah, Davey and Tony are great,” Jack replies, and there’s something odd in Jack’s voice Katherine can’t quite place. “Sawyer idolizes Dave, honestly, I think he’s their favorite artist. I try not to take it too personally.”</p>
<p> A sneaking suspicion is starting to form in Katherine’s mind, though.</p>
<p>“That’s nice,” says Katherine.</p>
<p>Jack starts working on dinner, and Katherine helps him, but her thoughts keep drifting back to the photo on the wall. The natural history museum.</p>
<p>A few months ago, Sawyer had been caught up in a plot of Call and Echo’s that involved taking over the natural history museum. Impulse had come to the rescue, much to the surprise of most of the city, teamed up with Race with no sign to be seen of Flare.</p>
<p>Katherine had covered the event – she usually covered superheroes, and Flare, Race, &amp; Impulse and Crush &amp; Ginger Snap were the most active hero/villain pairs. Everyone in the city had been interested to see Race get involved with a villain that wasn’t his usual nemesis, especially since his nemesis seemed to, at least for the moment, been working for good.</p>
<p>That had been the day Katherine had been absolutely certain that Jack was Impulse. She’d suspected before, but when she’d heard that Sawyer’s fifth grade class had been at the museum that day, she’d known with unshakable certainty.</p>
<p>Interestingly, if his Instagram feed was to be believed, David Jacobs had also been a guest at the museum that day.</p>
<p>Katherine hadn’t interviewed him for her article, but the interaction of David Jacobs being at the museum and Race showing up with the wrong partner was <em>very</em> interesting to her.</p>
<p>Especially to now know that Jack and David and Tony seemed to be good friends after meeting – supposedly – at David and Tony’s wedding late last year.</p>
<p>Katherine has had a gut feeling for a while that Tony and/or David had superpowers, but she’s starting to wonder if it’s deeper even than that.</p>
<p>She’s always thought that Flare looked familiar, after all.</p>
<p>She hums, pushing the thought aside for the moment. There would be time to worry about that later.</p>
<p>Tonight, she’s going to enjoy a nice evening in with her boyfriend and his kid.</p>
<p>“He didn’t scare you away, then?” Sawyer says casually over dinner.</p>
<p>“Sawyer,” Jack says, warning.</p>
<p>“That’s what you were afraid of, right?” says Sawyer. They roll their eyes.</p>
<p>“I’m not planning on going anywhere,” Katherine replies. “If that’s alright by you, Sawyer?”</p>
<p>“Dad likes you a lot,” Sawyer tells her. “It’s alright by me. You should learn sign language, though, if you’re gonna marry him.”</p>
<p>“<em>Sawyer</em>,” Jack says. His eyes are wide, and he shoots an apologetic look at Katherine.</p>
<p>“I’m just saying,” says Sawyer.</p>
<p>“I don’t know if we’re quite there yet, Soy,” Katherine says, her voice remarkably even.</p>
<p>Sawyer shrugs. “It might be helpful anyway.”</p>
<p>“Or,” says Jack, “and this is just a suggestion, you could <em>not</em> drop the sound out on conversations you don’t want to have.”</p>
<p>“I can’t always control it, <em>Dad</em>,” Sawyer says. “As you very well know. If you’d just let me <em>train –</em>“</p>
<p>“You <em>know</em> why I’m against that, Soy,” Jack tells them firmly. “I’m not having this conversation again.”</p>
<p>“What, just because Katherine’s here?”</p>
<p>“No, because I’m not planning to change my mind.”</p>
<p>“Race says –“</p>
<p>“Race is <em>not</em> your father, Sawyer,” Jack cuts in.</p>
<p>Sawyer crosses their arms. “Doesn’t mean he’s not right.”</p>
<p>“Sawyer Avery Lewis Kelly,” Jack says sternly, and Sawyer pouts but they don’t argue further. Jack turns back to Katherine. “I’m sorry, Kath. We’re having a bit of a day.”</p>
<p>“Hey, don’t mind me,” says Katherine. “Do what you’ve got to do.”</p>
<p>Katherine can’t help but wonder how many conversations like this have happened behind her back before.</p>
<p>The level of trust both Jack and Sawyer have in her fills Katherine with a fuzzy warmth all the way to the tips of her fingers.</p>
<p>She knows this night – knows <em>telling her – </em>was more important than either of them are letting on.</p>
<p>She’s not going to let them down.</p>
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